She says some works have used images and cultural symbols other artists adopted earlier, and still others show the makers focusing on individual feelings rather than on wider society.

And that is why Peng and her team set up an "art clinic" at the exhibition on July 31. At this booth, artists and curators from China and abroad receive artists, view their works and provide career advice.

Lu Zhengyuan, a teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and an artist in his own right, says artists living in the information age have access to more resources and opportunities, and that exposure to developments in the international art scene will also provide Chinese artists a "more open way of thinking".

But some have lost themselves to profit-seeking. Lu says some are "solely driven by the so-called art trends" and don't capture what's around them.

History has shown that famous artists worked hard and experimented with their art even if it meant being commercially unsuccessful at times.